New Carp Rod - Which one???

[Old Smoothound]

Hi guy's,

As i have now caught the Carp bug from Captain Carp, i'm thjnking of purchasing a new Carp rod. I have been looking at the new Fox XT Warrior 12 foot 2.5lb test curve. Priced at circa £55! Nice slim handle and a soft feel rod.

I have a couple of Shimano bait runners so its just the rod i need.

What do you think, is it good value for money or yet another cr**p chinese rod?

You thoughts would be vey much appreciated.

[Norfolkboy]

I use the Wychwood Rogue Carp rods at 2.5lb t/c. Lovely smooth rod, great for casting long distances, nice forgiving tip, can play fish well underneath the tip.

A great piece of kit.

I personally think they're great, and not too expensive either at around 40 quid.

[Old Smoothound]

Thanks Dan,

Do i ned to get bite alarms, or just use the old fashioned method of folded silver paper between the butt ring and reel?

The river i fly fished for Pike has a good head of Tench and Carp in it, could i use bite larms and pods there?

[Norfolkboy]

It's up to you really, a lot of people hate them, but I always use them.

I think one of the main problems people have with alarms is some anglers set them way too loud, so the whole lake can here. I prefer to keep mine quiet, but loud enough that I can hear them (Obviously )

You don't really need a pod, you could buy one, or you could buy 2 banksticks, 2 buzzbars, attatch the buzzbars to the bank sticks and then put alarms to the buzzbar at the front, and then rests to the back buzzbar.

OR you could have 1 bankstick, buzzbard on that with alarms, and then use rod rests at the back.

So it's up to you...

[Old Smoothound]

Nice one Dan,

Thanks for the info, I think I will plumb for bansticks as i already have loads of them, allbeit they are antiques!

I have done a bit of local research and there are a few good lakes that i can try during the balmy summer evenings, and a couple of "private" ones that a couple of friends own.

So all i have to do now is learn how to tie hair rigs and the like which are extremely alien to me. So any more help in that direction would also be appreciated

[Norfolkboy]

Take a look here mate

Hair rigs